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Exemplar Student Challenge

Looking for a challenge and adventure?

The greatest challenges of life are discovered and met when God's people exercise their faith (Romans 10:17) to transform themselves (Romans 12:2), the church (Matthew 28:20), and the world around them (Matthew 5:16). Just ask the Christian explorers like Columbus!

The greatest and most rewarding challenges are not like a mowed trail in the woods, nor a calm breeze blowing in the direction you are sailing, nor working for someone else, nor a prescribed college curriculum.

The greatest challenge in life involves hearing and obeying our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Samuel 15:22). But how can this become the goal of your college level experience?

Since we know that God wants you to prepare for marriage and family by developing knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that will provide for your future needs, you can expect the Spirit of God to have a unique directions for you to develop your individual gifts.

This may involve more than simply selecting someone else's curriculum designed for the nonexistent average student. It involves hearing and obeying God, in conjunction with your family, to design and implement your personal college curriculum that brings glory to God in both the means and ends. Thinking beyond the current educational and career wineskins is essential, because God nor his obedient people are satisfied with old wineskins.

Perhaps God will lead you to learn or even teach together with us or other Christians, as He often does (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Take a look at our role in supporting the development of your curriculum and you will see an unusual depth of spiritual encouragement, knowledge resources, cultural impact, and family economy building ideas. This open format university with business incubator even has room for the students to become teachers at each level of accomplishment toward further economic prosperity.

Exemplar students have especially high visibility because others will be looking to your example for encouragement and as a model as they develop their own curriculum.

Here are a few general introductory thoughts about the family university network..

Last count we had 50 courses and a few programs. We are adding seminars, courses, programs, and experiences regularly in preparation for students to self assemble (i.e., with family and God) their own curriculum from Biblically and culturally influential teachers and resources. We have designed the network based on the fellowship of the church, with the flexibility and freedom to allow and encourage the acquiring of genuinely Biblical views in each area of knowledge and profession. We are using the teachers (Romans 12:7) of the church to convey their knowledge, wisdom, and understanding while students remain in the home or family friendly context. A person’s goals are crafted individually and can even include the general goal of entrepreneurial family business freedom (1 Corinthians 7:21). We understand the secularizing and homogenizing effect of degree goals and accreditation, and believe that genuine innovation in Christian higher education is an important aspect of building up the body of Christ, keeping the youth in the faith, and applying their faith to impact future generations. We want to develop young people into Christian innovators; people who are willing to look beyond the current education, business, government, professional, and even religious systems to envision and create Biblical ministries, professions, and businesses as the outworking of Christ in them. As Francis Schaeffer pointed out, Christian youth have been accommodating the world in their educational choices for much too long. This is understandably a temptation, since young people want to be accepted by society and demonstrate their capabilities in a recognizable manner. But if Christians don’t think and act like Christians who will? Where parents understand and have conveyed the critical importance of Christian thinking to their young people, young adults are in a good position to become cultural leaders in their field of interest. The family university network has been established to provide a little encouragement and mentoring for these young adults who are willing to be leaders and follow the Lord into unique ministry and career directions. The family university network transcends typical degree focused Christian institutions, web-based Christian colleges, and home college institutions. The family university network involves building and using your own family knowledge base, in fellowship with like-minded believers, towards launching family businesses for Spiritual, family, and economic prosperity. A student can benefit from the family university network in the same way students typically benefit from colleges, business incubators, and churches. Pre-developed courses and curriculum can be taken or students can craft their own curriculum. Business advice and resources support the student’s entrepreneurial interests. All of the content in the network is conveyed by Christians intentionally incorporating Biblical perspectives for maximum transforming of the mind (Romans 12:2). Fellowship between families and students is enabled through the use of the family university journal, where families grow in scholarship while encouraging one another with the details of their learning, research and unique business developments.

With all of the above said, would you consider being an Exemplar Challenge Student for the family university network? This could be done for a short time or long, but would essentially involve writing and working through a curriculum specifically for you. This could be a “living” curriculum which improves over time.

Your example will be valuable for others considering this approach to higher education. Your example will be conveyed simply by publishing the curriculum you develop in the family university journal, along with articles that demonstrate your accomplishments during the execution of your curriculum, including any or all studies, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurships.

The encouragement to write, can not be overemphasized for you to grow in clarity of thinking and in the development of new ideas and business directions, even if pursuing a hands-on direction.

So this is the Exemplar Student Challenge, if and only if the Lord wills, that you be an example student for the family university network. This innovative approach to higher education needs a few students to demonstrate how it works to others, and the benefits of the network fellowship and unique outworkings of Spirit-led curriculum development and execution.

The network is quite unique in contrast to simply paying thousands of dollars to build someone else’s institution, moving away from home, sitting in class or at a computer, partying, taking tests, learning to think like a secular humanist, graduating with debt and without a job, and then spending the rest of life unlearning secular humanism in order to become an effective Christian innovator with a Christian worldview. The network is intended to give the student a chance to start with and stay with Biblical convictions and presuppositions in every area of endeavor without compromise.

Practically speaking, the network can help you find appropriate teachers and resources, if needed, for subjects that are not already available in the network. You can preview the network at: http://bartlettuniversity.com/FUNpreview.php

We also want to work closely together with you and your parents to help ensure the depth, breadth, quality, and outcomes desired. There is no charge for the advising role, publishing in the family university, journal, or network membership, however, each course or curriculum in the network does have individual costs associated as written by the respective teachers.

Your curriculum choices are not limited to the network resources, but they serve as a good list to consider selecting from. We bring additional teachers into the network as we identify Exemplar Student interests.

If you want to take the Exemplar Student Challenge, sign up today by sending an email with the title Exemplar Student Challenge to: info@bartlettuniversity.com or call 1-800-477-8626.